Just one day after Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
The 30-second ad -- a montage of news clips of former and incumbent Cabinet members' "off-beat" moments -- aimed to undermine President Chen Shui-bian's (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"We hope TV viewers will take a relaxed view of this ad when, which is presented in a relaxed and humorous style," KMT spokesman Justin Chou (周守訓) told reporters.
The alliance had planed to produce 20 TV campaign ads in the run up to March's presidential election to promote the candidacy of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and his PFP counterpart and running mate James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Among the officials picked on in the TV spot are former minister of economic affairs Christian Tsung (
The advert featured Tsung performing a provocative dance, Iap making a shooting-gun gesture at press photographers with his hand and Yu singing karaoke on a naval vessel, as well as footage of him following his admittance of accepting massages from unlicensed masseuses.
Noting that during the past three years of Chen's presidency he had already changed three premiers, four vice premiers, three ministers of economics and four GIO director-generals, Chou asked "how could the public expect good policy from the government with its many changes of cabinet members?"
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cho Jung-tai (
The deck, designed by his office, featured cartoon pictures of Lien and Soong on one side with the other side carrying blunt remarks made by Lien and Soong when they faced off in the 2000 presidential election.
During the 2000 presidential election, Soong, a former KMT secretary-general, ran as an independent while Lien ran as the KMT's presidential candidate.
Both fiercely attacked each other during the campaign, with Soong calling Lien incompetent and lazy and the KMT running a series of advertisements attacking Soong's credibility and integrity and painting him as a greedy and deceitful billionaire.
"Many people wonder how these two, who fiercely slammed and lashed each other with bitter words [during the 2000 presidential election,] can now join hands and campaign together" Cho said, adding that the Lien-Soong alliance in the upcoming presidential race was a "marriage of convenience meant to cheat people out of their vote."
Soong and Lien "care not about the people and the nation but about divvying up of the spoils of office," Cho said.
The poker cards were not for sale, according to Cho's office.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
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